Will Donald Trump get the highest number of black votes for president in the history of the GOP? A black civil rights attorney who also does podcasting and radio thinks so.
Leo Terrell, a frequent Fox News contributor, has been an outspoken critic of Trump in the past, but has also said he’ll be voting Republican for the first time in his life. In an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program on Monday, he said a lot of other black voters will be doing the same.
“I brought over 300,000 black Democrats to vote for Trump. I’m bringing more and more and more,” he said.
“Trump is going to get the highest number of black votes ever in modern-day history for a Republican. Black voters are voting for Trump,” he added.
It’s unclear where that 300,000 mark comes from; perhaps he’s talking about his black listeners. Republicans would certainly welcome the influx, either way.
The thing is that President Trump doesn’t need a tremendous swing in black voters for it to be a game-changer in swing states — particularly in places like Michigan and Wisconsin, where Democrats depend on people of color turning out for them in Detroit and Milwaukee.
While Leo Terrell’s listenership — if that is where the 300,000 number is coming from — isn’t necessarily a representative polling sample, pollsters have seen a bump in support for Trump in the black community.
A survey by The Hill and HarrisX, conducted Aug. 22-25, found that 24 percent of black voters approved of President Trump. The sample period included the first two days of the Republican National Convention.
“That is up 9 points from the previous survey conducted Aug. 8-11, where the President received 15 percent support among this group,” the poll reported.
It’s not the only poll that has seen some movement in the black vote.
PollWatch is a Republican-run Twitter account and it’s worth noting the U.K. Express/Democracy Institute poll PollWatch refers to is considered an outlier, having consistently shown Trump in the lead nationally.